CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Corporate
Crime Reporter Names Top Fifteen Black White-Collar Criminal Defense Attorneys
21 Corporate Crime Reporter 31(1), July 29, 2007
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick pled not guilty last week to criminal
dog fighting charges.
Standing by his side – his attorney – William “Billy” Martin.
Martin is a white-collar criminal defense attorney and partner at Sutherland Asbill.
The National Football League wants to get to the bottom of the Vick situation and has hired Covington Burling partner Eric Holder to investigate.
When Patrick Fitzgerald indicted I. Lewis Libby, Libby hired Paul Weiss partner Ted Wells to defend him.
What do Holder, Martin and Wells have in common?
They are black attorneys in a field dominated by white attorneys.
And they have made the list of the Top Fifteen Black White-Collar Criminal Defense Attorneys, released last week by Corporate Crime Reporter.
The top fifteen are:
Raymond Brown (Greenbaum Rowe)
Zachary Carter (Dorsey & Whitney)
Francis Carter (Zuckerman Spaeder)
Joe Caldwell (Baker Botts)
Eric Holder (Covington Burling)
James E. Johnson (Debevoise Plimpton)
Jeh Charles Johnson (Paul Weiss)
B. Todd Jones (Robins Kaplan)
Loretta Lynch (Hogan Hartson)
William Martin (Sutherland Asbill)
William Moffitt (Moffitt & Brodnax)
Michele Roberts (Akin Gump)
DeMaurice Smith (Patton Boggs)
Theodore Wells (Paul Weiss)
Bart Williams (Munger Tolles)
The list was based on a survey of white collar criminal defense attorneys.
“There are only a handful of black white collar criminal lawyers to begin with,” warned one prominent black attorney who asked not to be identified. “You probably have most of them on your list. And probably only two or three of them bring in any substantial amount of business for their firms.”
The overwhelming majority of white collar criminal defense attorneys are white.
Michele Roberts, a partner at Akin Gump, said that when she attends the annual American Bar Association National White Collar Crime Institute, she is one of a handful of black attorneys she sees there – out of more than 1,000 attorneys who attend.
“You can count the black attorneys at these conferences on one hand,” Roberts said. “I don’t go anymore – I get sick of it.”
Roberts says there is a serious roadblock between the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C. and the big law firms.
“I get a lot of phone calls from young African-American Assistant U.S Attorneys who want to join big firms,” Roberts said. “In the four years I’ve been at this firm, I know of three or four that have come out of AUSAs that have found positions in the field. But there are maybe twenty or so I know who have not found positions. They are having a difficult time making the lateral move.”
Others say that the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C. is the exception.
In fact, at most big city federal prosecutor’s offices – including the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York – there aren’t that many black Assistant U.S. Attorneys to begin with.
And only a very few of them have prosecuted white collar or corporate crime cases.
“There is an old boys’ path to the large firm white collar practice that starts with being an associate at a major law firm, leaving that firm, going on to become an AUSA, and then going back,” says Jeh Johnson, a partner at Paul Weiss in New York. “Very few African American attorneys have taken that path.”
One reason is that very few make it into the door of the big law firm to begin with.
“It is not the case that law firms are in any way different from the rest of corporate America,” Michele Roberts says. “It’s difficult for people of color to get positions in the big law firms.”
Other black attorneys who make it into the big law firms find it uncomfortable and confining working there. And sometimes the big firms don’t like controversial cases these attorneys chose to defend.
Michael Moffitt used to be a partner at Cozen & O’Connor in Washington, D.C.
He now has his own practice – Moffitt & Brodnax – in Reston, Virginia.
Moffitt says that part of the reason for the falling out with Cozen was his representation and defense of Sami Al-Arian, the Palestinian professor in Florida – accused of aiding Palestinian groups overseas.
Moffitt also successfully defended Abdelhaleem Ashqar in Chicago against federal racketeering charges of supporting Hamas operations in Israel.
“It’s very difficult for somebody who practices a little differently, who works a little differently, to fit in at a big firm,” Moffitt said. “I’m known for doing things differently than most lawyers. It’s hard to be a trailblazer and end up at an elite firm. There are some great lawyers at elite firms. But it’s not always a great fit. It takes years of contacts to be able to operate at the highest level. For me, I’m not that patient. I’m also known for innovative criminal defense. That’s sometimes hard to get the big firms to accept.”
Michele Roberts says one big problem is trust.
“It
has taken some time for high profile white defendants to trust someone of color
on an issue as important as whether or not you go to jail,” Roberts said.
“I enjoyed seeing Scooter Libby walking in and out of court every day
accompanied by a black attorney. That was significant to me and to many of us.
It did send a strong message that one of the more powerful people in the world
could trust his fate to a black man.”
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